Firefall announces beta, details launch

Mark Kern, CEO of Red 5 Studios, dropped by the Firefall forums today to write an open letter to The Escapist regarding Firefall's beta testing and launch. In the post, Mr. Kern states that the game is currently in friends and family beta testing. But there's good news for those of you who aren't friends or family of the folks at Red 5: The expanded beta program will begin later this month after PAX Prime.

As far as the game's launch is concerned, Mr. Kern goes on to explain that the team already considers the game to be launched, as Red 5 seems to feel that the traditional closed beta to open beta to launch process is outdated "in a modern, online, service oriented business, especially a free2playgame." Instead, they will be modeling the game's launch after Gmail's invite system, wherein certain players will be invited by the team, and those players will receive invitations that they can pass on to friends, thereby allowing the game to gradually grow as layers of invitations are passed around. Stick around for more, because you can bet we'll have the first news on the beta this month after PAX.